Spanish actress Verónica Echegui has sadly died at the age of 42.
Local media reported that Echegui was hospitalised in Madrid and passed away on August 24, bringing an end to an 18-year career in film and television.
According to reports, very few in the industry were aware of her illness, as her team had kept her diagnosis private.
The late actress abandoned her Sociology studies to train at the Royal School of Dramatic Art before making her first television appearances in A New Life and Paco and Veva.
Her breakout role came in I Am Juani (2006), which catapulted her to fame in Spanish cinema. Two years later, she earned critical recognition for her performance in My Prison Yard (2008), directed by Belén Macías and produced by Pedro Almodóvar.
Over the following years, Echegui built an extensive body of work in more than 30 films and TV shows.
Her international career included appearances in the 2009 British comedy Bunny and the Bull with Noel Fielding and Richard Ayoade, and a Hollywood debut in 2013 opposite Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver in The Cold Light of Day.
In 2022, she starred alongside Sam Claflin in the bilingual Prime Video rom-com Book of Love, and she also had a prominent role in the Amazon Prime drama Fortitude, set in the Arctic Circle.
Her final screen role came in the Apple TV+ series Love You To Death, filmed in August 2023 and released earlier this year. In the show, she played Marta, a pregnant childhood friend of Raúl (Joan Amargós), a man grappling with a heart cancer diagnosis.
Promoting the series earlier this year, Echegui reflected on how illness shapes relationships: “The series asks many questions about death and life, because it's impossible to talk about death without talking about life and how you live it," per Daily Mail.
“I think the people who love you are the only ones who have the courage to say to you: 'Have you considered whether this is right? Are you happy like this or not?’” she added.
Tributes have poured in following the news of her death. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez shared an emotional post on X, which read: “I was deeply shocked by the news of Verónica Echegui’s passing, an actress with enormous talent and humility who leaves us far too young. My sincere embrace in these such difficult moments for the entire family and friends.”
Antonio Banderas, best known for starring in The Mask of Zorro, posted: “Today, Spanish cinema is in mourning due to the passing of Verónica Echegui. My condolences to her family and friends.”
The Spanish Actors and Actresses Union also issued a statement celebrating her contribution to cinema.
Echegui, who never married, was in a long-term relationship with fellow actor Álex García for more than a decade after the two met filming Six Points About Emma in 2011. They split in 2023.
Spanish outlets reported that several of her former co-stars and colleagues have visited her body at a Madrid funeral home to pay their respects.